NYU Backs Down from Tower Proposal on Landmark Site
From the Villager:
I.M. Pei to Landmarks: No N.Y.U 4th tower on landmarked site
N.Y.U. to shift tower to Morton Williams site
By Albert Amateau and John W. Sutter
In a surprise reversal on Thursday, New York University announced that it was withdrawing its Landmarks Preservation Commission application to build a 400 ft. tall fourth tower on the superblock site of three I.M. Pei-designed residential towers.
The decision was driven by a letter that Henry Cobb, a partner of the architectural firm, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, sent a letter to the L.P.C. on Nov. 10 saying that Pei, 93, was strongly opposed to the proposed tower on the landmarked portion of the superblock that N.Y.U. design consultants had said would complement the “pinwheel” arrangement of the Pei design.
The Cobb letter also said the firm preferred the alternate N.Y.U. proposal to build on the northwest corner of the superblock not landmarked and occupied by the Morton Williams supermarket.
N.Y.U. officials said on Thurs., Nov. 18 that the decision was made as a mark of respect for Pei’s vision, which in 2008 granted landmark protection to the Pei-designed Silver Towers plaza and its three 300-ft.-tall residential buildings surrounding the 36-ft. tall rendering of Picasso’s Bust of Sylvette.